Re: <nettime> FutureSonic:Environment2.0 2009

[Nick <nettime@njw.me.uk>]

Thanks very much for this thoughtful review. I appreciate you taking 
the time and space to discuss and consider what you found, rather 
than just give an overview.

I wasn't at the festival, and I have just one thing to add to your 
analysis.

Quoth marc garrett:

> So how does the festival's espousal of web2.0 mantras of empowered
> togetherness fit with an ecological approach? The new tools of networked
> sociability can mask functional inversions of the communitarian impulse
> to which they appeal. In contrast with Free and Open Source Softwares
> (often social softwares) published under the GNU GPL[1] whose workings
> are transparent, web2.0 social softwares (such as Twitter, Flickr and
> Facebook) are 'free' to use because their creators have found (or soon
> expect to find) a discreet way to harvest the hidden value of some
> aspect of the unwitting users' behaviour. Value is built by users'
> interactions and activities and when successful, the utility, its users'
> content, habits and personal data are put to work on the financial
> markets in the service of industrial "bottom line" principles.

As a participant in the free software world I agree with your 
contrast with 'web 2.0' services. However while the commoditisation 
of private information and usage patterns is indeed a serious 
problem, I'd argue that more significant still is the control 
inherant in such a platform. To have a communication service only 
operated and operable by one entity (or any number; the point is not 
runnable by and responsive to yourself and your community) is deeply 
troubling.

If you're interested, the group 'autonomous' [1] are seeking to 
build alternatives, which can be freely deployed by anyone, and 
allow federation between different systems.

[1] http://autonomo.us/

Thanks again,

Nick

-- 
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